3 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 11.2 hrs on record
Posted: Nov 20, 2021 @ 6:00am
Updated: Jan 1 @ 6:41am
Product received for free

This is such a wonderful title that I can unconditionally recommend to any players.

Pros:
  • Great cartoonish art style.
  • Large hand-crafted map.
  • Western & Steampunk themes platformer with Metroidvania elements.
  • Mining, digging, and exploring the map with fully upgraded equipment are such a pleasure.
  • Numerous collectibles that are neither too easy nor too difficult to get.
  • Each cave is a different mini puzzle and offers more varieties to your adventure.
  • The game is linear and indicates clearly where you need to go to proceed the story (you don't have to follow the guidance strictly though, and there is even an achievement for that). This is a pro for me, maybe not for everybody.

My small complaints:
  • Uninteresting plot/dialogues.
  • Mediocre soundtrack, especially compared to its predecessor.
  • Unfriendly towards completionists: speedrun/no death/farming achievements; achievement for very difficult trials.

SteamWorld Dig 2 is such an improvement over its predecessor, SteamWorld Dig. What SteamWorld Dig did right, SteamWorld Dig 2 does even better; what SteamWorld Dig did wrong, SteamWorld Dig 2 properly corrects them. Detailed improvements over its predecessor for those who have played SteamWorld Dig:
  • Even better graphics.
  • The map is larger and hand-crafted (i.e. the same for all the players) and the game is also twice longer to finish (around 10 hours).
  • Water and health are much easier to replenish. They are fully recovered each time you go back to town or when you are in a water pool if you have upgraded equipment. After upgrading your equipment, defeated enemies drop plenty of replenish orbs.
  • Less likely to die, and does not take away half of your wealth when you do. Hence, more casual and more focused on exploration.
  • More equipment, in particular Jet engine and long-range grappler/hook. They make navigating the map much easier and joyful.
  • Plenty of teleport points scattered all over the map. And unlike in Steamworld Dig, you can teleport between any of these points, which means you no longer waste tons of time navigating a completely explored part of the map.
  • Has a secret percentage shown on the map so that you can know if you have found all the secrets in an area. You can also refer to this wonderful secret guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1144149252. This guide provides a high-resolution map with annotation of all the secrets of the game, an essential reference for completionists.
  • Feels much less repetitive since the caves are more interesting to explore.
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